You don't need a (dedicated) scanner

I, in more ways than I often realize, am a set-in-my-ways Millennial whose computing defaults were set in the '90's. I'm as addicted to my phone as the next guy, and will order something quickly or book a hotel room from my phone without thinking. But I always sit down at a computer to make any larger purchases, to research, to most "real work." I snap photos on my phone all the time, but reach for my (modern, mirrorless) camera for the important shots.

And, without even realizing this was an older, set-in-my-ways habit, when I need to scan a document, I'll open the top of my HP 3-in-1 printer and curse the printer overlords as I wait for the device to slowly digitize my paper into a PDF. It's not that I didn't know I could scan documents with my phone; I've scanned hundreds of quick, one-off things with Apple Notes. It's just that for "important" documents, I always defaulted to the largest equipment available.

Then Wirecutter asked me to review the best scanning apps, and after dozens of app downloads and nearly 30 hours of scanning documents with phone apps, something flipped. Scanning apps are good nowadays, good enough that for anything short of archival photo needs, you don't need a dedicated physical scanner to digitize documents anymore.

Adobe Scan was the standout best. You can line up a set of documents, then pan your phone over the set and turn them into a single PDF in a literal minute. vFlat was a surprise favorite for scanning books, where it'd seemingly magically remove distortion and return two flat, clean pages from one shot of an open book. Photomyne as a bit more frustrating, with incessant reminders to upgrade, but it too felt magical at individually scanning a page from a photo album into a half-dozen individual photos that were at least clear enough to share on social media.

It was a good reminder to update your priors, every now and then. A reminder, again, that the smartphone is the last gadget, more of a digital Swiss Army Knife than many of us that grew up on PCs appreciate.

Go download Adobe Scan; it's worth keeping on your phone, a rare free Adobe tool that seems almost too good to be true. And enjoy never (or, at worst, rarely) having to wait for a scanner to warm up again.

→ Continue reading on New York Times | Wirecutter: The 3 Best Mobile Scanning Apps

Continue reading at https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-mobile-scanning-apps/

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